Carry the Light of Jesus to Our Neighbor

Matthew 5:13-16 “13 “You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet. 14 “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.”

“Let your light shine before others so that they might give glory to your Father”

There are major themes running through Scripture, and LIGHT is one of those themes

In fact, when we open the book of Genesis, the Book of Beginnings, we read about light.

When God set about to create the world, He came down and looked and it says that the earth was formless and empty

And darkness reigned over the face of the earth.

In other words, darkness dominated or controlled the face of the earth

So what did God do?

The very first words out of God’s mouth that we read are these

LET THERE BE LIGHT

And immediately there was light

Now I don’t know about you, but when I hear this, a couple of questions come to mind.

Why did God create light first

Did He need light because it was hard for Him to see?

Where did this light come from?

He didn’t create the sun, our source of light on this earth, until the 4th day

Why didn’t He create the sun at the same time He created light

Well, I’m pretty sure that I can’t answer these questions perfectly,

But I’m fairly certain about this:

since God is omnipotent, all-powerful, I don’t believe that He needed to create light in order to see

And I don’t know why He didn’t create the sun at the same time that He created light

But here is one thing that we do know about God.

God IS light.

John declares to us in 1 John 1:5 that God is light. And in Him there is no darkness at all.

That’s perfect light! Even in our best attempts to create light, we still deal with darkness, with shadows.

Heidi is a photographer and I know that she always looks for shadows and how they might affect the picture.

But with God, He is perfect light.

And I wonder if His command, “LET THERE BE LIGHT” can be seen as a declaration of who He is.

It is a declaration of a key part of His character. He is light

And then Jesus comes on the scene and

When the Apostle John wrote his account of the life of Jesus, he says this:

John 1:1-5 “1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. 4 In him was life, and the life was the light of men. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”

Why hasn’t the darkness overcome the light? Because God is Light and in Him, there is NO darkness.

And Jesus, being God in the flesh, was Himself Light, and was not overcome by darkness

Jesus declares In John 8:12 “...., saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”

So God is light

Jesus, being God, is light

And that brings us to two points that I want to highlight this morning

We are invited to Walk in the light

Jesus says, whoever follows me will not walk in darkness

And if we find ourselves in darkness, then we know that we are not following Him

1 John 1:6-7 “6 If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. 7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.”

So walking in the light means that we have both fellowship with God, and we have fellowship with all of those who also are walking in the light

And we can’t have one without the other.

We can’t walk apart from the Light and still have true fellowship with each other

And neither can we walk out of fellowship with each other and still be in fellowship with God

It has to be both

So Jesus invites us to follow Him and walk in the light

but not only are we invited to walk in the light, Jesus says to His listeners in Matthew 5, “YOU are the light of the world”

WE are the light of the world

And this really is quite amazing when you think about it.

Jesus declared Himself to be the light of the world, but He also declares His followers to be the light of the world

What an amazing truth this is! What an amazing responsibility this is!

Our theme for this year is “Image Bearers”. As His image bearers, we have been tasked with being the light of the world.

Now what does this mean? Does this mean that we are on the same level as Jesus? That we are equal with Him?

No, I don’t think so.

in the 1st chapter of John, we are introduced to John the Baptist. And John makes it clear to us that John the Baptist was not the light that he was talking about.

Rather, John was sent to bear witness about the True Light

He was sent to prepare the way for that light. To tell others about the light that was about to dawn

He was sent to lead or to point others to the Light

And I believe that is what Jesus is talking about in Matthew chapter 5

We are sent to both bear or carry the Light into the world, and to witness about that Light

We ourselves are not the light. It is not our responsibility to singlehandedly chase away the darkness and to improve the world

But it is our responsibility to both carry the light and witness about the Light

So, what does it look like to be the light of the world. What does it look like to be an image bearer that reflects the Light of the World

Well, Jesus statement that His followers are the light of the world follows right on the heals of

What we call the Beatitudes.

What is really His description of the kind of fruit that will grow in the lives of His followers

and I believe that at the same time He is also describing what it looks like to “be the light of the world”

Because the fruit or the qualities that are given to us in Matthew chapter 5 are opposite of the fruit that Scripture describes as the “works of darkness” in Ephesians 5

Things like

sexual immorality

Covetousness

crude and foolish talk and so forth

Those are works of darkness. But in Matthew 5, Jesus shows us what it’s like to be the light

Being the light means that we are poor in spirit

That is, those who depend fully on God instead of themselves

Those who realize that they do not have nearly sufficient will-power or ability to please God on their own.

They have “poverty of spirit” and they need God more than anything else

Being the light in this world means that we live like this

As opposed to those who live in the dark

Those who try every day to get by depending on “Ol’ #1”

Those who try and fail constantly to please God

Being the light means that we mourn

That is those who actively grieve the sin in their lives and the sin and evil in the world

They grieve and mourn the horror that sin brings to people and how it wrecks lives

Being in the light means that darkness is horrifying to us and it causes us to mourn those who are living in that darkness

As opposed to those who have been in darkness so long that sin is just a way of life. They’ve gotten used to it.

And I’ve found that it is so easy to become numb to sin

whether it’s on a screen in front of you

Or if it’s in the lives of people that you meet and

story of woman

But being the light of the world means that sin affects us and we unashamedly mourn over it.

Being the light means that we are meek

Those who are humble and gentle. Those who don’t have to assert their dominance

Those who are quietly confident. Not because they have great ability, but because they are walking in fellowship with One who does!

As opposed to those who walk in darkness

Those who boast about their abilities, who assert their dominance

Or quite the opposite—they run away from challenges because they live in fear of failure.

But being the light of the world means that we are quietly confident of whom we walk with

Being the light means that we hunger and thirst after righteousness

Walking in the light, being the light, awakens in us a hunger for more righteousness

Psalm 42:1 “1 As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God.”

We desire more of what only Jesus can give us

We seek His righteousness first and foremost

And more and more, we hunger after what He loves.

More and more, we understand that our hearts can be wayward, and we cry out for Him to be our righteousness. So much so that it is like a physical hunger, a physical thirst, the need is that great

As opposed to those who are in darkness

Those who complain that the light hurts their eyes

Those who criticize when someone seems to talk about Jesus more than “real life”

Those who look down their noses at folks who love to hang out with the family of God, the brotherhood of Believers.

Those who constantly hunger for, and chase after, satisfaction for their physical needs, who are constantly after that new “high” or experience

and never finding fulfillment

Being the light means that we are merciful

Walking in the light and being the light means that we love mercy

It means that we don’t desire people to suffer judgement no matter how wicked they have been

Rather, we are those who mourn over sin and sincerely desire all to come to repentance, just as Jesus does

It means that we forgive and reconcile quickly when we wrong each other

In October 2006, When a gunman walked into a school in Nickel Mines, PA and killed innocent students and then himself, the community was devastated and the country and the world were shocked

But they were even more astounded when the Amish community quickly forgave the gunman and embraced his widow and her children

One of my co-workers accused the Amish community of being “brain washed”.

but you talk about a ray of light being shone into the darkness of that time!

That community showed such mercy!

As opposed to a dark world that clambers for justice and revenge

A world that will not be silent until the guilty party has paid the last penny

In a dark world, folks are more concerned about being taken advantage of than opening themselves up to forgiveness and showing mercy

Being the light of the world means that we are merciful and that we forgive even the worst of sinners

Being the light of the world means that we are pure in heart

Walking in the light and being the light means that our heart is pure

We have been purified by the washing of the blood of Christ

We are purified by the regeneration and renewal that comes from the new birth

And continues to happen and increase through the daily work of the Holy Spirit as he takes out the old and replaces it with the new

Why is this important?

Because it is from the heart that all of life springs

Out of the heart, “We do what we do because we want what we want”.

Being the light has to start from the heart.

You can go to the book store and pick up any number of “self-help” books to try to improve your life and the lives of those around you

Secular books and so-called “christian” books

But they won’t do a hill of beans good unless your heart has been made pure by the blood of Christ and is being regenerated and re-created by the work of the Holy Spirit

This is very different from those who live in darkness

whose heart is full of darkness

who still have the old heart. One which has not been made clean and is not in the process of being re-born

Out of their hearts proceed what is in those hearts

greed

Jealousy

gossip, slander

the works of darkness

Being the light means that we are peacemakers

Those who walk in the light and who carry the light are those who make peace

they dont’ settle for conflict or for a fake or forced peace like we talked about last Sunday

But they actively make peace

they show others how to have inward peace with God

But they are also active in the Kingdom of Heaven showing others how to be instruments of peace and reconciliation

They are willing to right wrongs that have never been addressed. They work for peace

As opposed to those who live in darkness

who are willing to let conflicts simmer as long as they aren’t being bothered and their life can remain somewhat undisturbed

For those who are the light, we are to actively make peace

Being the light means that we will get persecuted and mocked

Being the light in a dark world isn’t easy

Scripture is clear that all who desire to live Godly will be persecuted

Scripture is clear that the message of the Gospel is a stumbling block to those who are perishing, those who are living in darkness

Why is it a stumbling block? Because the Gospel shines the light on areas of a person’s life that they would rather keep hidden and they are going to react

Being the light means that you are going to be opposed at some point or another

As opposed to those who walk in darkness

Who live to be accepted and who are willing to do what it takes to be accepted

But being the light means that we rejoice when we are opposed

We rejoice when we are slandered, and lied about and persecuted

Rejoice, because your reward in heaven is great!

And this is nothing new. They persecuted the prophets who foretold of the Messiah, and they are going to persecute you as well

But rejoice!

Be like the apostles in Acts who were beaten by the council and they left rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer for the name of Jesus

So we too rejoice because this response by a dark world is evidence that we are living how our Lord lived

This is how we carry the light.

Jesus tells us, “Let your light shine!”

Don’t put your light under a basket, but let it shine, like a city that is set on a hill that can be seen from a great distance

Let it shine out!

Why should we let it shine? So folks can see what good people we are and be inspired to reform their lives?

No! So people will see your good deeds and glorify your Father in Heaven!

I’m always a little uncomfortable when people talk to me about how much they admire the Amish and the Mennonites because they just lead such exemplary lives

And I’m thinking, “You’re missing the point! You are supposed to be glorifying your Father in Heaven!”

But the command for us is clear. Let’s walk in the light. Let’s be the light. Let’s carry the light.

so our statement this morning is this:

At Fairview, we are people who carry the light of Jesus to our Neighbors